Silver Blue

[i]Silver Blue[/i] is a boy-love visual novel about Cyan’s journey to find his master Gui and discover his origins upon a mysterious mountain. [h3]The Story[/h3] The story centers around an orphan named Cyan who has no memories of his time before he was taken in by his master Gui, only strange dreams that have haunted him for years. One day Master Gui goes missing and Cyan sets off to find him. Cyan is courteous, thoughtful and has a good judge of character, and he loves cooking and researching herbs. The game offers three romance potentials. Sei, Ethan and Hagan. Sei is a good friend of Master Gui and often visits Gui and Cyan’s home. He is kind yet enjoys teasing Cyan, he is well-traveled and rarely talks about himself. Ethan is a hunter who along with this sister resides in the woods. He is one of the people you come across in your travels following Cyan. Hagan, an old acquaintance of Sei, is impulsive, hot-tempered and flamboyant in his style. This game is not lewd or graphic in any form. There are scenes of kissing in some key art pieces but nothing spicy. This novel falls into the romantic realm more than anything. [h3]Gameplay & Features[/h3] The settings are your usual choices for a visual novel. Display settings, rollback settings, skip choices, audio controls and text speed. There is an Extra's menu with a gallery with artwork that unlocks as you play (a lot of gorgeous artwork)!, music scores, memories and credits. [h3]The Visuals & Audio[/h3] This visual novel is so full of gorgeous anime-style art. The style I love, with gorgeous long flowing locks, a magical vibe in the air, and well rendered backgrounds that mesh well with the character art. Also the key art or special moments as I like to coin them are gorgeous! (I am swooning). I posted below some of my favourites. It was hard to choose honestly as I ended up with about 50 screen captures! https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3250725336 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3250725208 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3250724765 The sprites do have some animations to them like facial expressions shifting but for the most part are static in terms of poses. There is no voice work but there are ambient sounds. Fire roaring, crowds, birds chirping and knocking doors. The sounds are well done and bring the static backgrounds to life. The soundtrack itself is instrumental and honestly reminds me of music found in old school rpgs. In some parts it is nice and relaxing and in others it is loud or bothersome. In general I was not a fan of the overall music and kept it low in the background. [h3]Overall Experience[/h3] The writing in this novel is so well done. The routes you go down all intertwine with each other but also branch off into their own unique story-lines. There is depth to the writing and I loved all the characters. The gallery in this game is full of all the key moments and really just gorgeous artwork. I really enjoyed my time with this novel. The story was so interesting I found myself staying up late to keep playing it. I got the game on sale while browsing for visual novels and was happy to have come across this one & experienced it. I highly recommend both the visual novel and the art book. I hope to see more visual novels by [i]Bunbosoup in the future[/i]! ✨ [quote]Please follow our curator page, [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/4680120/]Otome Lovers[/url], if you'd like to see more reviews like this one! [/quote]

Interesting cast of characters with well-built backstories, everyone has their own role and things are connected as a whole in the end. Cyan interactions with the LIs are well presented and natural. The LIs have different personalities which gives a diverse experience in each route, also help showing different sides of the main character Cyan. However, the story pacing is not as well written as the characters. Most of the story is told at a moderate pace, but there will be chapters that are a bit slow or fast, which is partially affecting my playing experience. There are routes that are heavily focused on emotional development but there are also route that just focus on plot explanations. I recommend playing all the routes to get a full picture of what really happened. Leaving the dating-sim part aside, I think Silver Blue plot is good enough to stand alone as a story. The game still has some flaws and things that can be improved but the dev shows that they are willing to listen to opinions from others.

This was a super satisfying game to fully complete. Each character has a unique personality and flaws, even Cyan, as endearing as he is. Playing all the routes is really important to get the full story. One route may end with you thinking one way. Another route will reveal information that can completely change your mind. There is a bit of overlap in Hagan's and Sei's routes however, there are enough differences in the flashbacks and unique revelations to make playing them both worthwhile. Even the bad endings from later in the game, while sad can reveal more about the story. [spoiler] Hagan's willingness to be Rex for a Cyan that has completely forgotten him, is so sweet. It really drives home how devoted Hagan is in his own way, [/spoiler] There are even funny moments, for example (I will paraphrase): [spoiler] Cyan (about Aster): "He's too beautiful it's unnatural", Ethan (looking at Cyan, the guy who literally made his well-warned sister exclaim he was more beautiful than described):"....." Cyan: "What. Why are you looking at me like that?" [/spoiler] There are also different tragic stories in addition to the main plot that is revealed through the routes. [spoiler] Ex. The three kids, Calla, Kaiden and Aster etc.. [/spoiler] Also, the epilogues are very enjoyable. My one nitpick would be that the grammar isn't perfect, but whose is? [spoiler] There are a few instances in Hagan's route where "Don't think I won't" would work better than "Don't think I will" or the other words used. Also, it would make more sense if the one option was "Sugarcoat things for Hagan" or "Comfort Hagan" instead of "Sugarcoat Hagan". [/spoiler] Those are the only ones that stood out to me though. To wrap things up, I really enjoyed playing this game. It has pretty art, fleshed-out characters, and excellent music. Also, the unlockable title screens, and memories are an extra fun touch.